Monitoring of environmental conditions is becoming an increasingly important activity. Pollutants, such as gas and/or liquid emissions, are being subjected to higher levels of scrutiny by state and federal agencies. Policing emissions often requires continual monitoring of the environment for unlawful emission levels. In the workplace, many businesses handle toxic materials and require devices to monitor carefully levels of toxic materials to avoid endangering employees. In the military, the command infrastructure requires knowledge of the environment in which soldiers are operating to provide sufficient rest periods and nutrition and hydration levels not only to avoid unduly fatiguing soldiers but also to realize as high as possible performance levels from military personnel. In the widening war on terror, it is important to monitor for trace elements from weapons manufacture, sometimes over a widely dispersed, remote geographical area. Such evidence permits preemptive military/police action to be undertaken to apprehend terrorists before a terror attack occurs. Additionally, terrorists are expected to use weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons, “dirty” bombs, and chemical/biological weapons, in the coming years. It is desirable to implement a system to gather and analyze data in real time so that timely and well-targeted emergency response can be provided. The impacted area(s) and/or likely area(s) to be impacted can be determined using baseline data from a geographically dispersed sensor system (or Situational Awareness Monitor System) and existing atmospheric/plume models.
There are at least four desirable attributes of a Situational Awareness Monitor System or SAMS for event prediction and consequence management. First, it is desirable to permanently mount data acquisition units at key locations to collect real-time information for use in atmospheric/plume models to establish atmospheric baseline dispersion patterns. Second, it is desirable to incorporate a sensor suite capable of detecting pre-event indicators (such as elevated radiation levels) with the goal of prevention of a release. Third, it is desirable to have rapidly deployable units to augment the existing network on a much finer grid in the case of an event or release. Finally, the total cost of the SAMS should be relatively low to provide federal, state, and local authorities with limited finances the ability to acquire the SAMS as part of an emergency response plan.